Thanks (re: cheap cell service)

[The UnDoug]

Thanks to "bobinmurphy," "mattkime," and others who turned me on to T-Mobile's $30 pre-paid plan.

http://forums.macresource.com/read.php?1,1952041


I was able to switch my existing T-mobile account to the $30 plan, and put my daughter's iPhone 5S (which we'd never put on cellular since buying it from someone else a couple months earlier) on to the $30 plan, too.

It's pre-paid, which I've never had before, but I think I can set it up to auto-pay, so I won't actually have to do anything to reload the phones each month. I've always had post-paid, and had the charges automatically billed to my credit card.

After taxes, the cost is $34.05 each month per phone for unlimited texting, 5 GB of 4G data, then unlimited 2G data, and 100 minutes of voice. I don't expect either of us to use many voice minutes, and the 5 GB of data is 4 GB more than I currently had.

If I end up not liking the plan for some reason, I can always switch it, as there's no contract (actually I don't think any of T-mobile's plans have contracts).

I should add that I had been paying about $62/month to T-Mobile for unlimited texting and voice, and 1 GB of 4G data (then unlimited 2G) per month. So I'll be paying about $6 more per month for two phones with a better data plan, but fairly limited voice (which for me should be okay). I think I lose the free international data plan that came with my old plan, but I don't think that'll be a big deal for me.

[mattkime]

glad its working for you!

i forgot how i managed this but i always make sure my account has $10 credit in case i go over the 100 minutes of voice. if its not there you'll find yourself suddenly unable to make or receive voice calls. - tmo will charge me for whatever i use at the end of the month. if i use $4 in credit then tmo will charge me $4 and add it to my account credit.

i also have the google hangout app on my phone to make voice calls over ip. this way i only use my 100 minutes when i'm out away from wifi oooor receiving calls.

[bobinmurphy]

You can set up auto pay for this type of account. Mine is tied to a credit card. I get a text message from T-Mobile a few days before payment is due so I have time to cancel if I want, then I get a text message when the payment is made from my credit card.

I've tried other pre-paid plans on other services and found that most (actually all I tried) were strictly limited to the towers of the provider, i.e. they did not roam onto other service towers. Seemed that only their post-paid plans supported roaming. I was very pleasantly surprised to discover that the T-Mobile $30 plan does roam! I'm not sure if it will roam in Mexico and Canada like their $50/mo plan does, but I'll find out this summer.

T-Mobile also turned on their Binge-On music feature on my account, even though I don't use it. That was another pleasant surprise.

Overall, this T-Mobile $30/mo (~$34 w/tax) is the best phone deal I've found so far. WIth the right LTE smart phone and roaming it has some pretty fantastic coverage for very little money.

[mattkime]

oh - another tip. there's some sort of parental content block turned on by default. turn it off. its annoying.

[yeoman]

Does T-Mobile's plan allow tethering?

[bobinmurphy]

Tethering? It's been my experience that plans that don't want you to use tethering usually disable the options on the phone and you have to jump thru hoops using 3rd party apps to get it to work. On my Android under the T-Mobile $30 plan the options are all enabled. I used it a couple of times and never got a nasty text or e-mail from T-Mobile telling me it wasn't allowed, so I'd say yes tethering works.

[mattkime]

I've tethered without problem